Project 190e 2.3-16 (the Beginning)

By Matt Wellumson

Neuwerks

Well as some of you may know, I have been working with CarDomain for about two years now. I started off as a contributing event photographer for events like NAIAS in Detroit, and within the last year, I began contributing to the blog. Even though I’m a long time user of the site, I had yet to join the community by posting up one of my cars!

This had to change, so I decided my first (and currently only) car to get a profile page on this site, would be my newly purchased 1986 Mercedes 190e 2.3-16.

Continue reading after the jump!

With the wonderful features of the internet at my command, I looked into the ads on craigslist  across the US, searching for a late 80s or early 90s RWD European performance sedan or coupe. For whatever reason, I really like cars from that period of time, and found myself thinking about them so often, that I had to get serious.

The 190e 2.3-16 was always on my radar, but I could never find one that was in the correct condition and price for me to purchase. While searching I was really close to purchasing a Porsche 944 S2, and a BMW M3 which are both newer, faster, and arguably better than the 190 in many levels of performance, though I never got a great vibe from the few I looked at in person. After some soul searching, I decided to go for one of two 1986 Mercedes 190e 2.3-16 sedans I was looking at due to their overall rarity (less than 2,000 were imported), and some good old gut feelings. I will be posting up updates to my own 190e build as time goes on, but it will be a slow process as I have a few less interesting tasks to complete on other cars I own.